Pride, pleasure, profit: the link between strategy and leadership

If you bring the voice of the customer to the heart of the decision-making process, you will lay the foundation stone of a resilient strategy.

But this alone is not enough.

Organisations that thrive improve the emotional and financial health of their consumers. The best brands have emotional involvement with their customers. It drives their business model and is the primary emphasis in their communications. I don’t think I have ever seen an Apple commercial lead with processor speed.

Organisations who rely on the ruler and focus mostly on measurable attributes are encouraging direct competition. Soon, someone will soon be faster, slower, bigger, smaller-with dimensions to prove it. Competitive gaps and gross margins will decrease. It’s a well worn path.

So a strategy that is market-based and which aims to improve the emotional as well as the financial health of the target audience has the potential to provide an attractive business.

But this alone is not enough.

Pride, Pleasure and Profit applies to you as well as your customers

Any strategy has to address the Pride, Pleasure and Profit of the target audience—with particular emphasis on the first two items.

Likewise, to be implemented and to be organic, any strategy must also improve the Pride, Pleasure and Profit the organisations members with again—particular emphasis on the first two items. This is often overlooked, assumed to be implicitly in place or deemed of little importance. But here’s the hard fact; if you’re best people are not emotionally involved in your business, they will under-perform versus their potential. According to recruitment studies, lack of emotional involvement is the primary driver for the departure of young high-flyers.

Six ticks is the target

If you’re not sure where your team stands following a strategy or marketing plan session, conduct the 3P survey. Ask each of your team members to fill in the template and agree what to do next. Six ticks are required if you want to drive business and margins with a high-performing team.